HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-21-2017 Item 1,Czech
COUNCIL MEETING: -21- I
1Z
ITEM FEB 21 2017
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From: Genevieve Czech [
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2017 1:59 PM
To: E-mail Council Website <emailcouncii@slocity.o>
Subject: Tuesday 4 p/m/ meeting February 21, 2017
It has come to our attention that the appeals procedure is under consideration in terms of the cost required to
appeal, given the extra burden an appeal represents for the city staff . From the point of view of cost to the city,
did not the city have a 6.9 million dollar budget surplus last year which was largely spent on staff administration
improvements, such as software, that was supposed to streamline the record keeping and cut down on staff time
and save the city money? I have not witnessed evidence of extra time that the city council and city staff would
have invested into extra research and preparation before an appeal. Rather I have witnessed the council using
the same city staff reports to repeat the same objections, with a recent example dismissing the legal objections
against the current 22 Chorro project.
Apparently, a consultant was paid for this study of our appeals procedure, a cost that should not have been
necessary.
It would seem the city staff would want to keep a low profile at present, in view of the recent publicity
surrounding the Chamber of Commerce annual dinner's entertainment. The city manager's participation in a
vulgar, indecorous attempt at humor, would seem to recommend a period of lying low, rather than unleashing,
upon a baffled public, the shock waves of a major change in appeal costs. Surely, the city would conceive that
to raise the appeals cost would stifle free expression of concerned residents to some of the major developments
which require healthy evaluation and participation of the city's residents who would suffer the consequences. To
stifle that would contradict the essence of public participation in permanent changes to SLO. In the
February/March issue of the SLO Life Magazine Mayor Harmon states "that the role of mayor, in particular, is
to advocate for the city's permanent residents:. To raise the appeals cost would not be in that spirit.